Louisiana

06/01/2009 -- WASHINGTON -- United States Senator Mary Landrieu, D-La., today announced that the St. Bernard Project, City Year, Inc. and Louisiana Delta Service Corps will receive more than $1.8 million in AmeriCorps grants. These funds were awarded through the Fiscal Year 2009 AmeriCorps State and National funding competitions.    » read more »

06/01/2009 -- WASHINGTON -- United States Senator Mary Landrieu, D-La., chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery, commented on the start of the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season, which begins today. In May, federal forecasters predicted that there could be nine to 14 named tropical storms this season, including four to seven hurricanes and one to three major hurricanes.

Sen. Landrieu said:    » read more »

Facing Tough Re-Election, Vitter Fires First Shot of 2010... at SEIU; SEIU Highlights Vitter's Anti-Working Family Votes in New Ad; Vitter Tries to Cash In on Shameful Record

May 29, 2009 -- Washington, DC -- Senator David Vitter (R-LA), facing an uphill battle for reelection and wanting to keep his options open for 2012, has aimed his fire on the Service Employees International Union, who dared to draw attention to his shameful anti-working families record in a new ad that ran in Thursday's Times-Picayune.    » read more »

May 28, 2009 -- BATON ROUGE – Today, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal joined officials from Denbury Resources Inc, an independent oil and gas company, to provide an update on Denbury’s Green Pipeline project. Denbury is building a "Green Pipeline" from Donaldsonville, Louisiana to a location in Texas, which will be one of the first pipelines designed to transport man-made CO2 injecting it into oil reservoirs to recover additional crude oil that would not otherwise be produced.

The Green Pipeline project will have a total capital investment of $750 million and is expected to create up to 800 jobs during construction.    » read more »

Companies prepared to restore power if major storm hits Louisiana

May 26, 2009 -- Baton Rouge, La. – With the official start of hurricane season just one weeks away, Entergy Louisiana, LLC and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana, L.L.C. last week said they are ready to quickly and safely restore power should a destructive storm hit Louisiana.    » read more »

Landrieu participates in Commerce Committee hearing on imported drywall; releases updated "Help Guide."

05/21/2009 -- WASHINGTON -- At the request of United States Senators Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., the Senate Commerce Committee today held a public hearing to learn more about problems caused by tainted Chinese drywall and federal agencies' proposed response to protect consumers. Because thousands of Louisiana homes may contain the defective product, the Commerce Committee allowed Sen. Landrieu to attend and discuss the impact on Louisiana homeowners.    » read more »

May 22, 2009 -- BATON ROUGE – Today, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal announced that 150 Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Criminal Justice (LCLE) grants totaling over $20 million have been awarded to municipalities as well as law enforcement programs and agencies throughout the state. Governor Jindal said the grants will be used to enhance Louisiana’s criminal justice system and promote public safety.

Governor Jindal said, “We’re committed to providing our law enforcement officers and public safety agencies with the resources they need to keep our families safe. These grants will help ensure that our entire criminal justice system has the capacity to keep our citizens protected.”    » read more »

May 19, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. - Federal environmental officials have found that Chinese-made drywall - suspected of causing serious corrosion in homes throughout Florida, Louisiana and other states - contains three materials not found in samples of U.S.-manufactured wallboard, according to U.S. Senator Bill Nelson’s office.

Tests on drywall samples were done at the request of Sens. Nelson and Mary Landrieu, who have initiated an investigation into complaints from homeowners in their respective states, Florida and Louisiana, that drywall in newer or rebuilt homes smells like rotten eggs and is causing corrosion of copper wiring and household appliances. In addition, homeowners are complaining of health problems such as asthma, coughing, headaches and insomnia.    » read more »

Louisiana total rises to 20

May 11, 2009 -- BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals officials announced today that 11 more of the state’s probable cases of H1N1 influenza (swine flu) have been confirmed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This increases the state’s total confirmed case count from nine to 20. The state’s total probable case count now stands at 29, which includes the addition of seven new probable cases: one from Jefferson Parish, three from Plaquemines Parish, two from St. Charles Parish and one from Vermillion Parish. These seven new probable cases had onset of illness on or before May 2 and are currently being investigated by state epidemiologists.    » read more »

Plaquemines Parish receives grant in combination with previous CIAP award

May 6, 2009 -- NEW ORLEANS, LA – The Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) has awarded a $6 million grant to Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana through the Coastal Impact Assistance Program (CIAP) for the East Grand Terre Island Restoration Project.

These funds will be combined with an earlier grant of $21 million awarded through the CIAP to the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources for barrier island restoration at East Grand Terre.    » read more »

May 01, 2009 -- BATON ROUGE – Today, state officials announced that the Department of Health and Hospitals is investigating another possible case of the H1N1 (swine flu) virus in Ascension Parish, bringing the total number of possible cases in Louisiana to nine.

These are only possible cases, meaning they could not be identified by the Office of Public Health laboratory in New Orleans and have been sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lab in Atlanta for confirmation. There are still no confirmed cases of the virus in Louisiana, at this time.    » read more »

Apr 28, 2009 -- BATON ROUGE – Today, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal issued the following statement regarding the United States Army Corps of Engineers’ release outlining stimulus funding for Civil Works projects:

“The list of projects released today by the Corps includes important funding to dredge and maintain a number of critical navigation channels including the Mississippi, Atchafalaya, Mermentau and Calcasieu Rivers.

“However, the list only contains approximately $35 million for the construction of projects in Louisiana. The Water Resources Development Act of 2007 authorized billions of dollars in coastal restoration, hurricane protection, navigation, environmental infrastructure and flood control projects in our state that are ready for funding.    » read more »

Details State Action and Calls for Citizens to Take Preventive Measures

Apr 26, 2009 -- BATON ROUGE – Today, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal held a press conference to discuss the state’s aggressive action to get ahead of the swine outbreak and stress the importance of citizens taking steps to prevent against illness. The swine outbreak has sickened 20 people in the U.S. and hundreds more in Mexico, and it is being closely monitored by state and federal agencies.    » read more »

Impact Assistance Funds will Help Gulf States, Alaska and California to Restore and Protect Coastal Areas

April 20, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Six U.S. coastal states will share nearly half a billion dollars from offshore oil and gas revenues in fiscal years 2009 and 2010 to help restore and protect coastal wetlands, wildlife habitat and marine areas, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said today. The funds are available for approved uses by Alabama, Alaska, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and their coastal local governments.    » read more »

Mar 18, 2009 -- SHREVEPORT – Today, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal joined Department of Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc to announce that the state will be partnering with sheriffs in a program to better prepare state prison inmates for release and re-entry into society so they do not become repeat offenders. The Governor said that currently, inmates in state prisons have access to re-entry initiatives, but many state prisoners in local or parish jails do not have access to these services.    » read more »